Still Beating
by rjwritergirl
Summary: A missing scene from Blank, what I thought happened to Martha and Jonathan in Metropolis.


I've been bored in Science for the past couple of days (guess how much I've learned in the past week) and I started writing this, I thought of the idea after watching Blank and being a bit peeved that there were no Martha/Jonathan scenes in it.

Martha groaned softly as yet another doctor came out and it still wasn't Jonathan's. The latter looked over at her, an eyebrow slightly raised.

"What?" she asked, upon seeing his look.

"That's the fourth time you've sighed in ten minutes. What's wrong?"

She sighed again. "I'm just sick of hospitals," she explained. He rubbed her back affectionately and agreed, "Me too."

She tried to go back to the article she'd been reading, something about the history of light bulbs, but to no avail. She couldn't concentrate. Thoughts kept tumbling around in her mind. _Is Jonathan's heart getting better? How are Clark and Lois? Hopefully they aren't about to kill each other yet. When will Jonathan's doctor come out? Something's not right at home, I can feel it in my bones and . . . Good heavens, I sound like my grandmother._

Jonathan glanced over at his wife. She was frowning and he could tell it wasn't because she was sick of hospitals. He gently touched her shoulder; she jumped a little, startled out of her troubled thoughts. "You ok?" he asked his voice low with concern.

"Something's not right at home, I know it," she whispered.

"I feel that way too," Jonathan said, his eyebrows low with worry "We'll get out of here as soon as we can," he promised, hoping to alleviate her fears. "But we shouldn't have to worry too much, Clark will handle it. He'll remember what we taught him about . . . uhh . . . helping people."

Martha nodded, noticing Jonathan's hint. "You're right," she murmured, and again tried to go back to the article. Jonathan, however, didn't go back to reading the magazine he'd picked up. He continued to look at her. He knew what was really bothering her; she just didn't want to say it out loud. _Martha, you're not going to lose me. _He wanted to say it vocally, and stop her worrying, but he couldn't. For all he knew, his heart wasn't getting better, it could be getting worse. _Although _w_e'll never find out unless that $ doctor gets her butt out here. _He glowered to himself.

Just then Dr. Jordan finally came out. "'Bout time," Jonathan muttered to himself as he got up, Martha in close pursuit.

"Let's have a look at these test results of yours, Jonathan," Dr. Jordan said optimistically as they walked down the hospital hallway to her office.

S_he is way too cheerful for a doctor with a heart patient who takes four pills twice daily, _Martha thought.

Dr. Jordan showed them some X-rays. "These are the results from last year, Jonathan," she said, pointing to one. And these are from your last visit."

She pointed to a second one.

"Not much of a difference," Jonathan said, sighing inwardly. _If she's showing my past results to show that I need another surgery, then I wish Martha hadn't come. I don't think she can take much more of my being in the hospital,_ he thought dejectedly.

"No, there isn't," Dr. Jordan agreed, "and that's why we put you on your fourth medication. And after being on that one for a few months . . ." She revealed a third set of results. These are your results now." She let them look at it for a moment.

"Big difference," Jonathan spoke up after a few seconds.

"Yes, there is." The doctor said, smiling at them almost proudly, as if Jonathan were a child who had finally learned that 2+2 does in fact equal 4.

"W-what kind of a difference is it?" Martha managed to ask, expecting the worst.

"Well, we can take Jonathan off of one of his medications today."

They were speechless. Jonathan finally stammered, "I-I-I'm being _taken off_ of a medication? Is that some kind of mistake? Are you sure those are my results?"

"Yes, no and yes," Dr. Jordan answered all three of Jonathan's questions. "Your heart has healed quicker than we anticipated and you no longer need one of them."

"Which one?" Martha spoke up, finally able to talk.

"The one that builds up his heart muscles." Then at their puzzled looks she clarified it even more. "The big blue one."

"That- that's great!" Jonathan grinned.

"We should tell Clark," Martha suggested eagerly. Jonathan looked at his wife; she had tears in her eyes, happy tears, but there was also worry. She still thought something was wrong at home and wanted to get there with as few delays as possible, even if this was a day to celebrate. He nodded. "Of course, honey," he agreed.

"He still needs to take the pink, green and orange pills, but at the rate his heart has been healing he should be off of another one by his next visit," Dr. Jordan said, getting the prescription sheets out and putting the necessary information on them.

"Honey, could you please pull the car around to the front?" Jonathan suggested, as the doctor scribbled the prescription down. At her mystified look he added, "I have a question about one of the articles I read, that's all."

"You were actually able to concentrate on the magazine you picked up?" Martha asked, still smiling from the news.

"One of them caught my eye," he told her.

"Ok." Martha was still looking at him weirdly so he grinned again, hoping it would put her at ease. "Don't worry, sweetie, I'll tell you if I find out anything life-threatening."

It seemed to calm her a little and he handed her his keys. "Thanks hon." He kissed her on the cheek.

A few minuets later, Jonathan left Dr. Jordan's office, a pleased smirk playing on his lips.

But when he got outside the hospital, Martha wasn't in front and he couldn't see the truck coming towards the building. He waited for a minute and then jogged out to the parking stall he remembered leaving the truck in; once he got there, he knew for certain something was wrong.

Martha was in the driver's seat, but the truck wasn't on and it looked like she was crying. He opened the door. "Martha, what's wrong?" he asked.

She climbed out and put her arms around his neck. He held her until her shuddering subsided, and then asked again, "Martha, what's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," she whispered, looking up at him, tears magnifying her blue eyes. "I've just been so worried about you for so long and now you're off one of those medications." The tears spilled over once more. "I thought I was going to lose you."

He pulled her to him tightly, tears filling his own eyes at the thought of Martha being alone. Sure, there would be Clark, but Clark was going to college next year. He couldn't run the farm and attend college at the same time; it would be too strenuous, even for him.

Martha looked up at him again, and wiped the tears that had fallen from his eyes.

"Sorry to make you cry" she said quietly, a few tears still coursing down her cheeks. Jonathan smiled at her, knowing he too had tears coming out "I just can't bear the thought of you being alone"

She put her arms around him, now holding him. They stood like that for several minuets, only parting when an engine somewhere behind them backfired.

"We better go, Clark might decide to have a party again" Martha joked sullenly.

Jonathan smiled and brushed his own cheeks with the back of his hand "that is if Lois hasn't started one already" he attempted a joke. Martha merely smiled and climbed in the passenger side. Jonathan climbed in also and started the engine.

An hour later, they hadn't made it out of Metropolis yet because of a traffic jam. Jonathan kept glancing back at Martha. A few tears had leaked out since they had left the hospital, but whenever she caught him looking at her she flashed him a smile that could melt butter. Now she was staring out the window, a thoughtful look on her face. Every now and then another tear would trickle out and she would quickly brush it away. After this happened a few times, he lightly stroked her shoulder. "Now I'm really starting to get worried Martha."

"I'm still worried about Clark, that's all," she interrupted, then she flashed him another one of her butter-in-a-puddle-on-the-sidewalk smiles. "Really. It's just killing me that I don't know what's wrong. I guess no matter how old Clark gets, I'll still worry about him."

"Me too," Jonathan agreed with her.

"Of all times to leave my cell phone at home," she murmured half to herself. "If I had it with me, I could just call home and ask if anything's wrong, but no, I had to up and forget it today."

He sighed and inched the truck forward as the car ahead of him somehow managed to change lanes. He looked over at Martha. She was frowning again. He hated it when she wasn't smiling.

"Hey," he started teasingly. "You wanna know what the question I asked Dr. Jordan was?"

She merely glanced over at him, eyes full of anxiety. "Sure," she muttered.

"Well, the article I had been reading was called, 'Happy Partners Happy Heart.'"

"You talked to your heart doctor about our sex life?" Martha was appropriately appalled.

"I didn't say anything about it to Dr. Jordan," Jonathan gently defended himself. "I merely asked her if what the article said was true." He shrugged and gave her a grin. "She said yes," he finished then jokingly wiggled his eyebrows at her.

She sent him a dark glare, then resumed watching the building next to them inch from view. Jonathan looked at her reflection in the side mirror; her face was still full of thought but there was a small smile tugging at her lips.

Jonathan smiled to himself, pleased at the achievement of wiping the sorrowful look off her normally cheerful face.

Yet another hour later, they had finally made it out of Metropolis, and were speeding along Route 95 towards home.

About half an hour away from home Jonathan heard it, a whimper. He glanced over at Martha; it was her, she had tears running down her face again. He pulled over and took her face in his hands.

"What's wrong?" he asked, then added, "And don't give me any of this namby-pamby crap about being worried about Clark."

She sighed and whispered, "I'm worried about you, Jonathan."

"You don't need to worry about me, I'm now off one of the medications, and I was practically promised I'd be off another one by my next visit," he reminded her.

"You have a heart condition, Jonathan. I'm always going to worry about you," she whispered, her voice catching in her throat.

"You're not going to lose me, Martha," he said, finally speaking the words of comfort he'd wanted to say aloud for the longest time.

"I could." Even more tears fell now. "One day, your heart could just stop beating, and there wouldn't be anything that Clark or I could do about it."

"Martha, I'm not going to die any time soon, my heart will be beating for a long time," he said. She still didn't look convinced. So Jonathan brought her to him, laying her head against his chest so she could hear his heart. "See, he whispered, as if proving a point. "Still beating."


End file.
